Wood River times. [volume] (Hailey, Idaho) 1882-1915, 1887-08-02

East-A Look ut Kansas and q Ride
Through It-Kansas Towns and Their
Booms.
Especial Correspondence
WICHITA, Kan, July %.
The real estate boom covers the whole Uni
ted States. I left Washington selling its
property at double it's values Of a year ago,
and went to Ohio to find that city property
had risen there In somewhat similar proper
lions. visited the gas regions and heard
that every gas town had been inflated and
not few burst by real estate, and in Indi-
ana values built upon hopes had laid out
towns upon paper. At st. Louis found a
Great deal of building going on, and at Kan
sas City the boom of the great west was in
full blast. hear from a Californian here
that land speculation is wild upon the Pacific
slope, and southern California is building
paper cities on all unlimited supply Of climate,
sand and deas. There is hardly a good sized
town in this section which has not or is not
assuming booming proportions. In many
and most towns the real growth has aroused
fictitious growth, and farm lands have been
sold as city lots at prices at which it will take
the towns years to grow up to. The great
real growth, however, remains a fixed fact,
and eastern people who have not been west #
the Mississippi within the last five years can
not appreciate the wonderful development
which is going on both in city and country.
Kansas City, $1,000 by the census OF
1870, becoming $1,000 by 1880, has at
least 10000 today. Topeka, $500 in
1870, 1890 in 1880 and 90 400 in 1885, now
boasts 10000. St Joseph, Mo-, not far from
Kansas City, rises from 1900 in 1870 to
81 600 in 1880 and has now jumped to 60, 900,
with real estate boom TO back it. Leaven-
worth, though it fell off between 1870 and 1880,
had in 1885 nearly doubled, and there are a
number of towns of 10000 in Kansas which
were not large enough to put in the statisti-
cal almanac ten years ago. Values, business
and building have increased with population,
and the figures Of growth as taken from the
assessed values fairly ma one catch his
breath and wonder where it all is to end.
The tax estimate is here made, am told, on
about one-fourth Of the actual value of the
property. Kansas City had in 1870 an as
sessed valuation Of 81, 500 900; in 1885 the as
sessed value amounted to $51 $50 900, or more
than five times that of sixteen years ago.
Wichita sixteen years ago was nothing; in
1884 it aggregated in assessed value 81, 75O,-
600, in 1885 50 O65, $50, and to-day IS, 1886, OPS
IOpchu IlSen Ill lue dSS6SSpu value OF It's
personal property nearly 500, 900 in the past
four years, and the town Of Wichita, with a
population of little more than 81, 900 by
actual census, OWNS an assessed value Of Sc
oS6,O0O of personal property alone.
The towns have here given are either in
Kansas or Missouri, and I am told that a
similar growth is going on in the cities of
Nebraska, Colorado, Iowa, and notably in
those of the northwest, as St Paul and Min
neapolis. Before speaking of the real estate
boom and growth of these Kansas, towns I
will try to give you some idea Of the extent
Of this great western territory, the geography
and resources Of which can only be studied
by personal observation and extensive travel
Ply the estimates OF the Rev. Josiah Strong
in his able book entitled "Our Country" there
are only three of the twenty-five states and
territories west OF the Mississippi which are
as small as all New England, and we have
more than two acres of good land west of
the Mississippi to each one east Of it. II
Montana were laid upon the east it would
stretch from Boston to Cleveland, and its
lower edge would rest on Richmond, Va.
Idaho would cover all the states between
Toronto, Can, and Raleigh, N. c., and its
lower boundary line would be as long as the
distance between Washington, D. c., and
Columbus, o. New Mexico is bigger than
all Great Britain and Ireland.
Put the 100000 people of the United
States in Texas and it's population would not
be as dense as that Of Germany today. Place
them in New Mexico and they would have as
much room as have the citizens of Belgium.
Texas is big enough to feed us all, and allowing
$4,000 square miles for desert, has enough
cotton land to grow all the cotton that the
world uses today, at one bale per acre, and
have still left for a cattle range a territory
larger than the whole of New York state
The west has grazing lands alone which
cover territory larger by the state of Ohio
than the whole Of the states east of the Mis-
siSsippi and she has, all told, 500, 900 square
miles Of useful land, against 500 900 square
miles in the east. Her land is virgin soil.
too, while much Of that of the east is worn
out. 80
The west has some of the biggest railroads
II the United States, and she will soon be
covered with a network of these as is the
cast. The Chicago, Burlington and Quincy
line has already more than 1878 miles OF
road, the Chicago and Northwestern about as
many and the Chicago and st. Paul had last
year ,S04 miles. The Atchison, Topeka and
Santa Fe road is the Pennsylvania Central of
the west, and it connects Kansas City with
San Francisco and old Mexico City, and it
will in u few months, at farthest, have a
through line to Chicago. One OF its branches
runs to Galveston, Tex, and it taps the
whole country in which l am now writing
As to rivers, the Missouri and the Mississippi
and their tributaries have navigable waters
IF 20, 900 miles, or, il stretched in a line,
stream long enough to float a steamboat
nearly around the world.
might speak Of the immense mineral re-
ources Of this great west, but the subject is
90 big to handle here. The agricultural out
ook is enough, aud this immense territory i.
Tut in the infancy of its development Is il
any wonder that its towns snrinr In like the